Day 12: Urinal Games, college pranks and dog's seeing ghosts

London’s damn Tube strike was still on. So for our trip to Cambridge we caught a double-decker bus to Waterloo.  As luck would have it, the northern line was still operational so we could tube it quickly to King’s Cross Station.
I grabbed our tickets and within minutes we were on the Cambridge Express, and almost as quickly, getting off the train at Cambridge less than an hour later.  Too easy!

We walked downhill into town and after a quick wander around, grabbed a pretty decent burger at Ta Bouche for lunch.  Now, I wouldn’t normally share any toilet experiences, but the loos downstairs at Ta Bouche were certainly a little novel, at least in my experiences to date.  You see, the urinals all had screens above them, and little sensors in the urinal to allow you to control a game with, well…
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Day 11: London Gardens and Pubs

Today I decided to do a little exploration around London.  Shaz and Ken were back at work, and Michelle wanted to have a quiet day.  I had a rough idea where I wanted to go, including visiting a few of the London parks so off I headed.
Today was a tube strike so I decided to bus it to Waterloo.  Now buses aren’t the quickest way around London at the best of times, and during peak hour when there are no tubes running they pretty much were hardly moving.  So I got off at London Bridge and decided to walk it.
Since I’d walked the south side of the river before, I crossed over and walked along the north bank.  It was an enjoyable if uneventful stroll: passing morning joggers, like-minded tourists and families, and suited workers grabbing their morning coffees.

Europe Day 10: Tower of London

Today we spent the entire day exploring the Tower of London.  All Day.  From about 10 in the morning, all the way through till 5PM.  I think I saw pretty much everything.
Let’s see….
I’d bought the tickets online the night before to avoid queuing, and so I had to pick them up from Tower Hill.  This meant that I ended up walking around the entire periphery of the Tower of London site.  But I didn't have to queue.  So entire wall of Tower of London from outside.  Tick.

Europe Day 9: Edinburgh

Today we were leaving Edinburgh to head back to London, but that did not mean we couldn't still make the most of our remaining time here.
We had lived right across the road from this amazing church, and yet in our time here had not once visited inside, so that was definitely the first thing on today’s agenda.
Not only was this a really beautiful church inside, with some lovely stained glass windows, but as an added bonus, the choir was warming up for the Sunday Mass. What an amazing sound; sends chills and shivers right through me.

Europe Day 8: Edinburgh

The Deacon House Café.   A most fine place for breakfast: close, full of history, and full of scones.  Drambuie scones.  I mean, could there ever be a finer scone, ever?

Europe Day 7: Edinburgh

Today was an early start.  I like the early starts.  I’m getting up around 6 in the morning anyway, and getting out and about early means that so much more can be seen and done in a day.
Today we were off to Edinburgh with Shanny, Shaz and Ken.  Ken was again playing tour guide, a role he takes on with great enthusiasm and passion.
Rather than catching the tube, it was decided to take a black cab to King’s Cross Station, since there would be the 4 of us travelling today.  Shan had to work today, so would be travelling up tonight.

Europe Day 6: Bath to Canterbury

Today we had to get from one side of the country to the other.  Now back home that would be a 4 day journey.  Here it was only about 3 and a bit hours, but it still meant a light breakfast and a good bit of driving.

Europe Day 5: Cotswolds to Bath

Next stop was somewhere starting with ‘B’.
Let’s see, Bourton?
Banbury?
How about Broadway?  Yes.  Broadway was a very large town, however the inner city was a beautiful village in the same style as the other Cotswolds towns we had so far visited.

Europe Day 4: Cotswolds

Today we were off in our Zippy car for a taste of England outside of London.
Opening the boot to load our luggage, we found the previous renter had forgotten theirs.  A bag full of ciggies.  Blugh.  Why couldn't it have been chocolates?
Back to back double-decker buses blocked our view from Waterloo Bridge; peak hour London was very slow going til we eventually got out into the suburbs.
On the motorway we made good time as we passed green hills and paddocks of sheep and drove on the outskirts of Oxford.

Europe Day 3: London

Michelle and I were up early to try and get some internet time in.  The internet at Shaz and Ken’s is pretty much broken, so we thought we’d head down to Starbucks.  Luckily they weren't open and we went to Caffe Paridiso, on Shad Thames for breakfast instead.  Shaz and Ken joined us a bit later, and after we finished coffees and breakfast we caught the tube to Hampstead.

Europe Day 2: London

This morning we walked downriver and mud larked again with the low tide. Though there was much less to find at this point of the river, we still managed to pick up a couple of broken smoking pipes and pieces of old crockery.

We have arrived: First day in London

The plane trip wasn’t actually as hard as I thought it would be. Sure I knew it would be long, but I managed to get in a good seven hours sleep between Hong Kong and London; and that was without drinking any alcohol at all on the second leg.
The early morning lights of London were laid out beneath us as the plane flew on and circled around to Heathrow. I love flying over cities at night, and really love arriving 30 minutes ahead of schedule!
A very quick passage through customs and baggage collection and we were met by Shazzy and Ken with many cuddles and smiles; a lovely warm welcome after our long flight.
Ken had arranged a private taxi to take us all back to their apartment in London. Leaving the airport and out onto the motorway I still didn't really feel like I was in another country, at least not until we were passing these beautiful multistorey apartment buildings with their high pitched roofs and tall chimneys.
Our taxi driver took us on a little impromptu tour of London: Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park with Big Ben in the distance. Along Whitehall and past Trafalgar Square, Cleopatra’s Needle across London Bridge and to the apartment. Yeah, we were in London. :-)
A couple of hours to change and freshen up, and then we were off on Ken’s lovingly and painstakingly prepared itinerary.

4 hours from London

Just finished watching Walter Mitty. A really beautiful touching movie. Ben Stiller has really done a wonderful job.
I thought I'd open the window shutter to see if the sun was coming up yet and looked out on a stunning dreamlike view. A near full moon past the wing above a sea of clouds. The photo does it no justice.

First leg

Gin and tonic, tasty chicken rice lunch, Paul Mas merlot, and crying toddlers. Lake Eyre below Time to continue watching the Hunger Games.

At the airport

Forgot camera at xray, forgot to fill out departure cards, arhh. Let's try and relax a little...

Europe all packed and ready to go

but it's another 6 days till we leave.  Everything is organised so there's pretty much nothing left to do apart from throw a few last minute things into the bags on Friday and get to the airport on time.

Unless I've forgotten something....

Any way, I'm trying really hard to get all of my NZ trip from 4 years back onto the blog before this holiday starts.  considering I only sorted half of the photos, and gave up writing trip notes about half way through, I may be fighting a losing battle.  Anyway, I've done 6 out of the 15 days so I may still get there.

1 week to go

Yeah, it still doesn't feel like it is really going to happen.  Do I have to wait until I'm actually on the plane?  This is weird, and previous trips haven't been like this at all.  Maybe it's thinking about work and what will happen while I'm away.  I don't know.
This weekend I'll do a trial pack, but apart from that I don't think there is really anything more to do apart from get on that plane next Friday.

Heading to Europe!

It's getting really close, but the reality still hasn't set in yet.  Why is that?  It's only 16 days till we fly out!!  All accommodation is booked.  Trains, planes and automobiles are all booked and paid for. There is even a huge hole in the bank account.  I've typed up the itinerary and pretty much checked everything off the pre let's get on the plane checklist.  I've even resurrected this blog in preparation to blog the trip.  Let's see how we are in a weeks time....